There is good news for the foreign exchange market as the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reporting that net remittance inflows for July is up 43.8 per cent to US$274.7 million.

This is US$83.7 million more relative to the amount recorded in July 2019. This improvement is largely reflective of an increase in gross remittance inflows of 37.2 per cent or US$79.4 million as well as a decrease of 19.2 per cent or US$4.3 million in outflows.

The increase in gross remittance inflows emanated from increases of 43.6 per cent and 6.3 per cent in remittance companies and other remittances. For the quarter April to July 2020 net remittance inflows totalled US$916.6 million, up 27 per cent or US$194.6 million relative to the previous corresponding period.

The BOJ in its latest remittances bulletin for July stated that the improvement resulted from a 21.2 per cent or US$172.8 million increase in remittance inflows, further driven by a decrease of 23.1 per cent or US$21.8 million in outflows. The increase in inflows was attributable to a growth of 25 per cent in remittance companies and a marginal increase of 1.8 per cent in other remittances.

The largest source market of remittances to Jamaica in July 2020 remained the USA, whose share increased to 67 per cent, up from the 64.8 per cent recorded for July 2019. Other source countries, which contributed a notable share of remittances for July 2020, were Canada at 11.1 per cent followed by UK and the Cayman Islands at 10.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

For the period January to July 2020 Jamaica’s growth rate in remittance inflows of 13.4 per cent was marginally higher than that of Mexico, which registered a growth rate of 11.4 per cent. Meanwhile, Guatemala registered a lower growth rate of 1.4 per cent and inflows to El Salvador declined by 4.6 per cent.

— Durrant Pate